Just another dumb question

[Bughead]

Yeah, I know, there are no dumb questions, only dumb answers.
But I've always wondered about this.

Does green hair algae soak up the nitrates the same way as macro algae does? In my 180 FOWLR, there is no hair algae in the tank, but tons of it in the sump. I had some nice feather and grape caulerpa in the sump, but the green hair has choked it all out. The nitrates hang out around 10ppm anyway.

Any harm done in having the hair algae in the sump? If so, I'll try to clean it up. If not, why bother? Just curious.

[Reefland]

Yes it does. I see no harm with having it grow in the sump, just make sure you harvest it out as you would other macro algaes. You could put some crabs and snails in the sump to eat it out and harvest it for you.

Optimally though, I would try to rid the hair and go back to the macros; my opinion.

Scott Z.

[Reinhold]

I have to think that at some point in the future, the hair algae will find its way into your tank.

Having had a tank wipe-out due to hair algae, I'd recommend being very careful with it, and try to get rid of it and replace it with Caulerpa.

[Bughead]

I agree. I 'm not real kean on leaving it there to just take over and I do intend on cleaning it up. The phosphates got out of control, I haven't had time to take care of things properly, etc. I do hope to get a nice crop of caulerpa growing again.

[BEERBARON]

hair algae will always exist in your system. you just because you remove it from the sump doesnt mean you have rid yourself of the problem forever. id just let it go. try and grow it on pieces of plexiglass in rows in your sump/refugium and pull them out occasionally and scrape them off. much easier harvesting.